Bkool or Zwift?

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Doobiesis

Über Member
Location
Poole Dorset
As some of you know, I had a crash on my bike recently. But I’ve bought a new turbo trainer (Bkool pro smart) and I’ve downloaded the Bkool app, and did 50 mins but it doesn’t show any averages, or any information about your ride.

The reason I want this is so I can keep track of my progress, as it’s gonna be a few weeks before I’m able to go out.

Is Zwift any better does anyone know? I have three months free on Bkool, and wondering if I should pay for Zwift. Tbh it’s a bit disappointing as I paid extra for a smart one, and it doesn’t seem that smart!

Dawn
 

nickAKA

Über Member
Location
Manchester
Zwift gives you great post-ride stats but as far as I'm aware they mysteriously vanish when you've finished and they aren't stored in your profile on their servers (from what I can see); I upload my ride stats to Strava & garmin connect post ride direct from zwift where they are stored permanently, I guess bkool does the same (once linked to the appropriate accounts)?
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
If you're only going to pick one, go with Zwift, the community there is really good. If you're looking for a flavour of what it can do, look for Shane Miller on Youtube, he's got about a million videos about it.
 

BianchiVirgin

Über Member
Location
Norn Iron
I've recently joined Zwift also using a basic turbo and I must say quite impressed so far. The user interface is not very intuitive but I'm getting the hang of it. It does help with the tedium big time. Whether or not it's worth the dosh for the winter months only time will tell.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
As some of you know, I had a crash on my bike recently. But I’ve bought a new turbo trainer (Bkool pro smart) and I’ve downloaded the Bkool app, and did 50 mins but it doesn’t show any averages, or any information about your ride.

The reason I want this is so I can keep track of my progress, as it’s gonna be a few weeks before I’m able to go out.

Is Zwift any better does anyone know? I have three months free on Bkool, and wondering if I should pay for Zwift. Tbh it’s a bit disappointing as I paid extra for a smart one, and it doesn’t seem that smart!

Dawn
You need to have a Ant+ dongle to plug into laptop, you should of got one with your bkool, well they used to send one!

Sign upto Zwift, download the program on your laptop. Setup sensors with the setup page (hear rate, cadence, trainer etc).

join Strava to link Zwift rides to it, you can then analyse the whole ride

Follow this page completely
https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/204587825-How-to-Start-Riding-in-Zwift?section=200993429
Also select controllable trainer is the bkool box(bottom right)
Zwift setup page.png


Post back if having problems
 
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Joffey

Big Dosser
Location
Yorkshire
I'm pretty sure your rides are stored within Zwift and you can download them to Strava later if, for example, you accidentally delete them from Strava.
 

JuhaL

Guru
Like it said in here, power of Zwift is community. You can see information in bkool, just use up arrow key. Zwift have also good feature in a settings, that is trainer difficulty. It's a slidebar where you can select realism. 100% means that you have to use gears the way you do outdoors. Default setting is 50% what means that you don't have to use gears that much, power output is still the same. It's a softer selection.
 
OP
OP
Doobiesis

Doobiesis

Über Member
Location
Poole Dorset
Been told by physio I’m not to go on my turbo as the movement in my shoulder/arm has stiffened up :sad:

I joined Zwift in the end and got two goes on it. Was still quite painful but was happy to persevere, but will try again in a month.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Been told by physio I’m not to go on my turbo as the movement in my shoulder/arm has stiffened up :sad:

I joined Zwift in the end and got two goes on it. Was still quite painful but was happy to persevere, but will try again in a month.

It may help with comfort, but if you raise the front wheel by using blocks of wood or some other platform. you can raise it several inches or more, this will transfer weight off your arms shoulders considerably
 

bridgy

Legendary Member
Location
Cheddar
As some of you know, I had a crash on my bike recently. But I’ve bought a new turbo trainer (Bkool pro smart) and I’ve downloaded the Bkool app, and did 50 mins but it doesn’t show any averages, or any information about your ride.

The reason I want this is so I can keep track of my progress, as it’s gonna be a few weeks before I’m able to go out.

Is Zwift any better does anyone know? I have three months free on Bkool, and wondering if I should pay for Zwift. Tbh it’s a bit disappointing as I paid extra for a smart one, and it doesn’t seem that smart!

Dawn
Not sure what you mean when you say Bkool doesn't show any information about your ride? All your rides will be recorded to view on the website Bkool.com with full data on power, speed, profile, cadence, heart rate etc.

I hope your shoulder improves soon - if you want any help with how to find your ride data on Bkool just ask....
 

Gary E

Veteran
Location
Hampshire
All of your rides on Zwift are stored on your computer (documents/zwift/activities folder). You can manually upload them to Strava at any time and you'll get a whole host of stats and data on your ride.
It's a great tool for measuring your improvement/recovery, I especially like the "Activities" view in Strava that lists all of your rides in order. You can see at a glance if you were faster or slower than on previous rides as well as loads of other stats (power, time, distance elevation etc). The Fitness and Freshness is also a great tool that displays your developement as a graph (EDIT - not sure if this is a Strava Premium only function).
For someone like me, who's OCD knows no bounds it's a great tool :smile:
 
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